US lashes out at UN 'hypocrisy' over criticism of migrant family breakups

A United Nations official called on America to stop breaking up immigrant families and warned detaining children was a rights violation

America’s top United Nations official has lashed out at the international body's criticism of the US breaking up migrant families.

Noting that “several hundred children have been separated from their families” as the Trump administration has cracked down on border crossings, United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani warned that “there is nothing normal about detaining children”.

“The US should immediately halt this practice of separating families”, Ms Shamdasani said, adding that “Detention is never in the interest of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation”.

​In a stinging rebuke, America’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley accused the international body of hypocrisy for assailing America “while it ignores the reprehensible human rights records of several members of its own Human Rights Council”. She noted that America furnishes more humanitarian assistance than other countries.

“We will remain a generous country, but we are also a sovereign country, with laws that decide how best to control our borders and protect our people”, Ms Haley said in a statement. “Neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders”.

While Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for family separations at the border, there is no law - Democrat-passed or otherwise - that requires such separations.

Immigration advocates have countered by pointing to the Trump administration’s stringent new “zero tolerance” policy directing authorities to prosecute all instances of illegal border crossings. In her remarks, Ms Shamdasani said immigration violations should not carry harsh penalties.

“Entry into a country without the right papers should at most be an administrative offence”, Ms Shamdasani said.

Administration officials have also lambasted a caravan of Central American asylum-seekers that recently arrived at the Mexican border, saying it pointed to flaws in America’s immigration laws and warning of prosecutions for fraud. Ms Shamdasani noted that family separations were also occurring among asylum-seekers, who have a legal right to present their claims.

The Trump administration has repeatedly been at odds with the United Nations, particularly over Mr Trump’s controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the US embassy there.

As the UN prepared to overwhelmingly pass a resolution denouncing the move, both Ms Haley and Mr Trump warned that America might retaliate by cutting off aid.

Following through on that threat, the administration slashed its contribution to a UN programme that assists Palestinian refugees.